I just rewatched it today and was thinking that Zod, being genetically bred for war and trained his entire existence to fight...he really should have been able to handle Supes with ease despite not having the 33 years of exposure to Earth's sun.

He was obviously still almost as powerful as Clark and yet he also has all the training behind him to know how to fight in hand to hand, which Clark had none of except for what he possibly learned in the ship he found in the ice.

Thoughts?

And my favourite character in the whole movie was Nam-ek.

He was a badass mofo in his fight with supes and he grunts like a savage. I wish we could have seen more of him kicking ass. That battle with him, Faora and Supes was the best part of the movie imo.

This is one aspect of the movie that wasn't handled very well IMO. You see, having Superman being exposed to the sun for 33 years is rendered almost pointless if he gets weak so fast in kryptonian atmosphere (he should eventually struggled to breathe yes but should at least have reserved yet decreasing strength for days or longer) while having Zod and Co. being able to almost instantly enjoy nearly the same level of super powers with merely a couple hours of sun and atmospheric exposure alone while wearing breathing apparatus...hell Supes was reaping the nourishment of the atmosphere alone for 33 YEARS inside and out because he even adopted to it and you're going to tell me he gets weak as a human in a matter of minutes while Zod and Co. can brush off angry 33 year nourished punches? Snyder said that the three power levels in the film were Superman, Kryptonian and then humans but they constantly contradict Supes and the Kryptonian levels on screen. First, in the smallville fight Supes gets shot and the bullets seem to ricochet off him while he flies out of danger but send Faora and Nam-ek flying (good), yet Faora picks Superman up like a piece of paper and throws him through multiple buildings with literally zero effort.....WTH? Another scene is when Superman tackles Zod away from Martha and after the smoke clears Zod is quick on his feet while Supes is slow to get up....WTF? At the end of the day you could say that their was no clear cut line in terms of strength so basically 33 years of exposure wasn't as effective as it should have been rendering it almost pointless in a film about a character where it should have been of great importance and focus.

So to answer your question......Zod (and Co.) manhandling Supes because of bred warrior status shouldn't have even been an issue if exposure was handled logically for they should not have been able to take a weak punch from him without screaming in agony. They needed some form of fast working kryptonite so they said f u logic. And if I were to accept what the movie forced on us (which I still don't), then Supes (complete amateur) shouldn't have been able to land even a lucky shot on these so called genetically modified soldiers who supposedly trained all their lives to incapacitate their fellow man